I tried to make it whole year without posting....

So this is going to be a pretty long post since it's been a LONG time!  So hang in there, and hopefully I will do better from now on since I want my family and friends to keep tabs on our growing family.  Lance finished his first year of Dental School, and is now knee-deep in his second year.  Good job, Lance---we are SO proud of you!!  Sometime this fall, he will take the boards, and I'm sure he will nail them!  

As for me, I am still loving being a mom--and my joy will be tripled in a few weeks when we have our THIRD BOY!!  I can't wait to meet the little guy!  I'm glad our kids are so close in age, and that they will truly be buddies.  

Owen resumes preschool next week.  So he will one more year in preschool before he starts kindergarten next year.  He's pumped, and so am I--that he will be back to hanging out with kids his own age, and having his little brain stimulated more regularly.  He is going to ride the bus this year, which kind of makes me want to cry--but it's a really safe situation, and a good way to break him into it.  The bus stop is just right up the street.  The only kids on the bus are 3-5 years old, so I don't have to worry about older kids bullying him or anything.  Plus, the teachers come out to the bus to meet their kids, and walk them in--and do the same in the afternoon to put them back on the bus.  So that eases my mind a little.  I was stressing out thinking about hauling a newborn, a toddler, and a preschooler into preschool every day during the winter.  Wish us luck!  I'll post pictures of his first ride next week.  

Oliver is just as cute as ever, and learning new things/phrases every day.  He has quite the adorable personality, a lot of which I think is due to his interactions with Owen.  He's quite the jokester, and tells us often "I funny.  I super silly."  He's going to miss Owen next week, but then he can devote his full attention to his true love in life---"Cars."  Not only does he LOVE the movie, but with lots of help from Lance, he now owns almost every car from the movie.  It's been fun this summer to collect them, and to have Ollie get so excited every time he gets a new car.  

I think that's all for the "update" post.  I am going to post a couple different things now based on our pictures--kind of like a picture diary of the last few months.  Enjoy!  And expect more pictures of our newest little Grant baby in a few weeks!

Happy Halloween!!!

Everybody we know is just GIVING OUT CANDY?

Let's get going!

Our  happy little alligator!

Ahhhh...

Our ward had a fun Halloween/"Trunk-or-Treat" party a few days before Halloween.  The kids loaded up on candy--I guess it was good preparation for the real thing a few days later.

The week before Halloween, we had a party at our house to see all of our friends' cute kids in their costumes!  This is the best group shot that I got.  It was quite the scene watching all the parents trying to get their kids to sit still, and to keep their costumes on long enough to take the picture.  (You'll notice Owen had already shed his alligator skin:)

We were excited that our cute friend Kate came all the way from Slippery Rock for the festivities!  She was such a cute little witch!

Who's that scary ninja?  The men at the party got a big kick out of Lance's official Ninja gear.

One more shot of the cute witch!

All in all, we had a great Halloween!  We're still working on eating all the candy the kids collected from the multiple parties and trick-or-treating.  It was fun to experience a Pittsburgh Halloween, and to see all of our neighbors out trick-or-treating with their kids.  We had over 300 trick-or-treaters come to our house!  Plus, as an added bonus, Gramma and my sisters were all here for the fun. (I will post pictures of their visit shortly)

Adventures with Daddy

Lance loves to take the boys on outdoor adventures.  He is really good at finding the fun places to go here in Pittsburgh.  It's a little tougher than when we were in Utah, and could basically drive for 5 minutes and be at a perfect mountain hiking trail or camping spot.  

The week before Halloween, Lance took the boys up to Raccoon Creek to explore, and to pick out pumpkins for Halloween decorating.  They had a great time picking out pumpkins, and taking a hay ride!  

A few weeks before the outing, Lance had bought a hammock at a garage sale. (Oh yeah, did I mention that Lance has suddenly become a "garage saler"?  He gets out the "Penny Saver" each week and scouts out the good garage sales and estate sales.  Then he heads out early on Saturday morning to find his hidden treasures:)  He has found some great deals on household tools, pictures, and a fun set of books he had when he was growing up).  

So Lance was super excited to set up the hammock, and boys loved it--especially Owen!  They had a great time getting tangled up in their fun new toy.  

Not surprisingly, Lance found a gorgeous trail to explore.  The leaves here have been amazing!  We have had a really great "fall" season here, since we are used to Utah Winters that usually kill off the fall leaves with an early snow storm.  

Next time, I think they will probably take a bathroom stop before they set out to take pictures!

Our Budding Photographer

So, Owen has discovered how to take pictures these days.  And I have to say, we are very grateful for digital cameras so that we can delete several of his "interesting" pictures without having to develop a hundred pictures of the floor or ceiling.  Here are some of his better shots:

"Do I have something in my teeth?"

Here's a picture of Lance showing off his dental skills with Owen.  The boys don't LOVE having their teeth floss, but I guess they will have to learn to live with it since their dad is going to be a dentist.

"Matcher Boys"

So this will be the first of several posts since it has been about 2 months since my last post.  My friend Jenn let me know the other day that it wasn't acceptable to go so long without posting :) 

Owen has lately been wanting to be "matcher boys" with Oliver.  He likes to wear the same pajamas.  It's pretty cute, since I am sure that he won't want to match with Ollie for very much longer.  Gramma sent them some cute matching frog pajamas, so here they are showing off their news duds.  

Life in Pittsburgh

So we made it safely to Pittsburgh, and life has been pretty hectic. My dad drove out with us, and my mom flew out with the boys (what a Saint!!!). So they were here for a few days. This picture was taken on our back porch the morning before they left

That morning, Owen and Oliver had a lovely breakfast on the porch. It was pretty precious.

We have been kind of consumed with setting up our house, which has been a fun experience since we have been living in student housing for so long. We are fairly sure we set the record for most hours spent in Ikea in a week's time. We still have a lot of empty walls and spaces, but it really feels like home to us now. Here are some pictures of our new digs:

Entry Way

Family Room

Dining Room
(since we don't really have a dining room table, it is more of a sitting room/play area for us right now)

Master Bedroom

Guest Bedroom

Master Bathroom

We got to spend a few weeks together as a family before Lance started school and Owen started preschool, so that was nice. We have a fantastic park right near our house, and have taken the boys a few times. If you look hard at the second picture, you can see Owen in the green shirt:

After Lance's first few days of classes (I guess maybe they wait a few days to weed out the slackers :), he and his classmates had a "White Coat Ceremony." So the boys and I went into Pittsburgh to see him get his official white coat---it definitely hit home that we are really moving toward him becoming an actual dentist. I was slightly annoyed that we had to sit through an HOUR of speeches though before they handed out the coats. It's definitely not like church, where there are tons of kids making noise, so it was tricky to keep the boys absolutely silent during the ceremony. Most of the people around us did not seem amused by the boys' antics.

Owen started preschool at the beginning of September. It was kind of hard to send him off to school since he is still so little- but he absolutely loves it. His teachers are great, and he is really pumped that they have a play kitchen and blocks there. Every day, he tells me "I had SO much fun today." He doesn't quite understand why he can't go to preschool on the weekends, but hopefully it's not too depressing for him to spend time with us at home. Here's a picture of him with his cute little backpack.

So it's just Ollie and me most days. I am loving having some time to spend with just Oliver since I haven't had very much one-on-one time with him up until now. He mostly just wants to play in the front yard and eat the sidewalk chalk (yuck!), and he absolutely loves being chased and tickled. His words right now (though not always understandable to anyone but me) include: baby, mama, daddy, doggy, diaper, poo poo, Owen, Grandma, YaYa, bye bye, hi, "here you go", eat, thirsty, water, bottle, night night, buddy, outside, shoes, juice, banana (nana), book, bath, cheese. I can't think of any more right now, but he seems to learning new things every day lately. The next picture I just couldn't resist posting. Ollie was eating lunch one day and I just thought he was being cute:

Then, this week, Oliver had his very first haircut (yes, I know he is 18 months--I have very bald children). Our friend Carlee cut it for him. He looks so grown up now! Here he is putting on his little cape before the big moment:

And this is the "money shot" I got of him during the haircut:

Lance is loving dental school. he has 2 big tests this week, so we will know after that how hard it really is....he has been hitting the books every night like crazy, for the last week. Good luck, Lance! I am loving being at home still, and working when I can. We love the cute little town that we live in, and our ward is awesome! I am having tons of fun getting to know all of the cute families in our ward. We miss our friends and family like crazy, but we are really being watched over here in Pittsburgh and have been REALLY blessed.

Hopefully, now that we are settled, I will be a better blogger. Stay tuned...